Joseph
Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 - October 12, 2002) was an
American musician. He was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned
to play the trombone from his father. He studied music arranging from a
course book.

After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II (where he worked under
Walter Schumann), he was hired by Mitch Miller, then head of A
& R
at Columbia Records as their home arranger, and he worked with several
artists, including Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine,
Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray. He wrote a top 10
arrangement for Don Cherry's "Band of Gold" in 1955, a single that sold
more than a million copies.

Amongst the hit singles he backed with his orchestra (and eventually
with a male chorus) were "Yes Tonight Josephine" and "Just Walkin' in
the Rain" by Johnnie Ray; "Chances Are" and "It's Not for Me to Say" by
Johnny Mathis; "A White Sport Coat" and "The Hanging Tree" by Marty
Robbins; "Up Above My Head," a duet by Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray,
and "Pet Me, Poppa" by Rosemary Clooney. He also backed up the albums
"Tony" by Tony Bennett, "Blue Swing" by Eileen Rodgers, "Swingin' for
Two" by Don Cherry. and half the tracks of "The Big Beat" by Johnnie
Ray.

In these early years he also produced some similar sounding records for
Columbia's Epic label under the name of Jay Raye (which stands for
"Joseph Raymond") amongst them a backing album and singles with
Somethin' Smith & The Redheads, an American male vocal group.

Because of the success of his backings Mitch Miller allowed him to make
his own record, and this became the successful "'S Wonderful", a
collection of standards that were recorded with an orchestra and a
wordless singing chorus (four boys, four girls). He released many more
albums in the same vein, including "Dance The Bop" (1957), "'S
Marvelous" (1957, gold album), "'S Awful Nice" (1958), "Concert in
Rhythm" (1958, gold album), "Hollywood in Rhythm" (1958), "Broadway in
Rhythm" (1959), and "Concert in Rhythm, Volume II" (1959, gold album).

In 1959 he started the Ray Conniff Singers (12 girls and 13 boys) and
released the album "It's the Talk of the Town. This group of
word— not
just syllable — singing singers brought him the biggest hit
he ever had
in his career: "Somewhere My Love" (1966). The title track of the album
was written to the music of Lara's Theme from the film Doctor Zhivago
(1965), and was a top 10 single in the US. The album also reached the
US top 20 and went platinum, and Conniff won a Grammy. The single and
album reached high positions in the international charts (a.o.
Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan) as well. Also extraordinarily
successful was the first of four Christmas albums by the Singers,
"Christmas with Conniff" (1959). Nearly fifty years after its release,
in 2004, Conniff posthumously was awarded with a platinum album/CD.

Musically different highlights in Conniff's career are two albums he
produced in cooperation with Billy Butterfield, an old buddy from
earlier swing days. "Conniff Meets Butterfield" (1960) featured
Butterfield's solo trumpet and a small rhythm group; "Just Kiddin'
Around" (after a Conniff original composition from the 1940's),
released 1963, featured additional trombone solos by Ray himself. Both
albums are pure light jazz and did not feature any vocals.

In this program Ray recalls his early days in Boston playing trombone
with the Society Bands, including Dan Murphy’s Musical
Skippers,
performing in New York with Bunny Berrigan, Artie Shaw, and Bob Crosby
and his eventual glory years at Columbia records

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